Book Review #19

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That's right people, I'm bringing out the big guns today with none other then Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. I'm sure many of you are familiar or have at least heard of this 19th c. collection of poetry and either hated it or loved it when you had to read it in high school. I read it in high school and I didn't like it, but lucky for literature I don't give up that easily and read it again in college and loved it the second time around.

I love it because it is my country in a poem. Sometimes I feel culture-less in the US confusion of tossed salads (let's face it, America isn't really a melting pot. We hold onto our cultures because it is a complex and identifying part of us all). Whitman grounds me with his thoughts of America, celebration of the senses, and love of the mind and spirit. He wrote a poem that can be read in the 21st c. and that can bring a reader to recognize nostalgically the sounds and sights of American history that can't be found anywhere else.

This poem is especially relevant now with the movement to remind people of their role in nature, rather than above it. So if you feel a part of nature, feel your complex cultural heritage, or just love 19th. c America, read this poem.

Poem works best when read in a A-frame cabin. Or in the forest :)